Validation of psychosocial scales for physical activity in university students

• Published in: Revista de saúde pública Vol. 49; pp. 47 - 10
• Main Authors: Tassitano, Rafael Miranda, de Farias Júnior, José Cazuza, Rech, Cassiano Ricardo, Tenório, Maria Cecília Marinho, Cabral, Poliana Coelho, da Silva, Giselia Alves Pontes
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brazil Faculdade de Saúde Pública da Universidade de São Paulo 01-01-2015; Universidade de São Paulo
• Subjects: Adulto Jovem; Atividade Motora; Brazil; Cultural Characteristics; Estudos de Validação; Exercise - psychology; Health Policy & Services; Humans; Original; Questionários; Reproducibility of Results; Socioeconomic Factors; Students - psychology; Students - statistics & numerical data; Surveys and Questionnaires; Traduções; Translations; Universities; Brazil; Adulto Jovem; Young Adult; Estudos de Validação; Questionnaires; Traduções; Validation Studies; Questionários; Atividade Motora; Motor Activity; Translations
• ISSN: 0034-8910; 1518-8787; 1518-8787; 0034-8910
• DOI: 10.1590/S0034-8910.2015049005465

OBJECTIVE Translate the Patient-centered Assessment and Counseling for Exercise questionnaire, adapt it cross-culturally and identify the psychometric properties of the psychosocial scales for physical activity in young university students. METHODS The Patient-centered Assessment and Counseling for Exercise questionnaire is made up of 39 items divided into constructs based on the social cognitive theory and the transtheoretical model. The analyzed constructs were, as follows: behavior change strategy (15 items), decision-making process (10), self-efficacy (6), support from family (4), and support from friends (4). The validation procedures were conceptual, semantic, operational, and functional equivalences, in addition to the equivalence of the items and of measurements. The conceptual, of items and semantic equivalences were performed by a specialized committee. During measurement equivalence, the instrument was applied to 717 university students. Exploratory factor analysis was used to verify the loading of each item, explained variance and internal consistency of the constructs. Reproducibility was measured by means of intraclass correlation coefficient. RESULTS The two translations were equivalent and back-translation was similar to the original version, with few adaptations. The layout, presentation order of the constructs and items from the original version were kept in the same form as the original instrument. The sample size was adequate and was evaluated by the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test, with values between 0.72 and 0.91. The correlation matrix of the items presented r < 0.8 (p < 0.05). The factor loadings of the items from all the constructs were satisfactory (> 0.40), varying between 0.43 and 0.80, which explained between 45.4% and 59.0% of the variance. Internal consistency was satisfactory (α ≥ 0.70), with support from friends being 0.70 and 0.92 for self-efficacy. Most items (74.3%) presented values above 0.70 for the reproducibility test. CONCLUSIONS The validation process steps were considered satisfactory and adequate for applying to the population.